I sort of agree with this. Putting damping in the front and rear fenders of my Pathfinder tremendously improved the noise characteristics, even after I'd installed Bilsteins and air bags.DanJetta wrote:Don't underestimate the power of what you hear. I think part of why the ride feels so harsh is because everything inside the car is so cheap and rattly, so the ride is perceived as being harsher than it really is. I drove through downtown Baltimore with noise-cancelling headphones on (as a joke with my wife) and I noticed that the ride seemed a lot better. The inside no longer sounded like a giant baby rattle. Well, it did, but I couldn't hear it.
When I hit a pothole in my wife's Jetta, I only hear the suspension working. When I hit a pothole in the Pathfinder, I hear the entire dash shifting, the door internals rattling, the hatch banging and every other plastic part inside the car vibrating in some form. It sounds like an all-out collision.
They're unstressed in the body-on-frame design so they act like giant tympani drums. A little rubber goes a long way here...